December 24, 2007
Price, an artist living in 1960s New York City in her 20s, traveled to France in search of an outlet for her artistic creativity. Enthralled by Paris's wrought-iron balconies and the urban landscape that inspired the Impressionists, Price was soon in a fervid romance with Yves, a Frenchman and artist, whom she married. Not long after the birth of their daughter, Danielle, Yves—against Price's protests—bought half a hamlet in a bucolic corner of Brittany, and Price was left with the arduous task of rehabilitating their seven broken-down farmhouses. As her once-quixotic marriage languished with Yves's increasing volatility and unreasonable demands that she stop painting, Price forms an unlikely friendship with her neighbor Jeanne, a villager in her late 60s who becomes her mentor—teaching her, above all else, self-sufficiency—while Price introduces her new companion to the art world and city life. In this sweet, simple memoir, Price redefines her idea of strength and resilience and commemorates a once-in-a-lifetime friendship.
January 1, 2008
As a young woman in the 1960s, Price lived a life that was the stuff of dreams. Leaving behind the comfortable Chicago suburb in which she was raised, she ventured to Paris to pursue her true passion, painting. Soon after arriving, she fell madly in love with a moody, handsome French painter named Yves. All of a sudden, Price found herself married and the owner, with her husband, of half a hamlet in Morbihan, in idyllic Brittany. The series of sprawling farmhouses were fixer-uppers in every sense of the word, and Price wondered just what shed gotten herself into. She eventually adjusted to Morbihans slow, peaceful pace, befriending the locals (including a wise, wizened woman named Jeanne), even though her husband insisted she would forever be an outsider. Seemingly overnight, Yves mercurial personality turned menacing, and when he was diagnosed with cyclic personality, Price found solace in the countryside and in the company of Jeanne. Fans of Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes can curl up in their armchairs for this moving, if somewhat melodramatic, memoir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)